Description
Start Date-End Date: 09/14/2017-09/14/2017
Land Manager Office:
Land Manager Contact: John Giordanengo
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner: Synergy Ecological Restoration
Summary: Collect native plants on this beginner- and youth-friendly project.
Description: About the Stewardship Site:
A key northern tributary of the South Platte River, the Cache La Poudre flows from Rocky Mountain National Park to Greeley, where it meets with the Platte. ThePoudre is an important part of northern Colorado ecosystems and the project will take place alongascenic stretch of the river on the plains near Windsor, CO.
About the Volunteer Experience:
Volunteers will focus on harvesting willow transplants known as "stakes" and may also harvest seed or other plant material. These materials will then be transplanted for critical restoration projects at other locations. This will be a more intimate project, with a maximum of 30 people. Lunch will be provided!
About the Overall Impact:
Using native plant materials is fundamental to ecological restoration efforts. However, these materials can have limited to no commercial availability. This means that oftentimes, the only way to procure them is to harvest willow stakes and other materials from the areas where they naturally occur. Volunteer efforts on this project will help facilitate other important restoration work in northern Colorado.
Latitude/Longitude: 40.472792, -104.907074
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 25
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 30
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 30
Total Unique Volunteers: 30
Total Volunteer Hours: 120
Staff Hours: 24.5
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: The goal of this project was to harvest as many young willows as possible to transplant at a later date around the Lyons area for flood restoration. This project was a partnership with AloTerra and Synergy 3. The willows were harvested from a couple sites in the Windsor area.
Successes and Challenges: Successes:
We had 30 volunteers come out to the project.
The weather was wonderful.
We harvested a lot of willows.
We had many first time volunteers!
Challenges:
One Wells Fargo vehicle of 9 people arrived 25 minutes late.
The project site was found 2 days before the event (very short notice to volunteers). I wasn't able to preview the sites beforehand which made directing volunteers to these sites difficult. We did our best to form a long caravan.
The harvest sites were pretty thin, vegetation-wise.
I learned when we were at the 2nd site that we didn't get full approval to be on/harvest from these areas. John Giordanengo essentially didn't hear a "no" which meant that it must be okay.
Michael was very knowledgeable, but was very slow transitioning from one site to the next. He was insistent on counting and bundling them all before we moved on, which is understandable. But he was doing this at a very slow pace and talking with many people while all the volunteers pretty much waited around for us to move on and continue the work.
Michael (from AloTerra) and Heather (from Synergy 3), were not able to see the sites before the project day. The volunteers and I waited in the parking lot for 15 minutes while they scoped the sites to prioritize best sites.
They wanted us to provide some straps if we had any. As I assumed, they would have been used to wrap the trees and wouldn't be returned (we didn't bring any). Michael provided some for the project.
Overall, I felt bad for those who had this event as their first impression of VOC. From the project location details sent only 2 days before the project, to the scramble to scope the harvest sites, to the late arrival of a chunk of Wells Fargo volunteers, to slow transition from site to site. I made it well known that this is not how usual projects get run. Volunteers seemed to understand these extenuating circumstances and had a great time despite it all.
Lessons Learned: It's good to shorten the work day (if possible) when the project site is not known until right before the project, at least with willow harvesting.
We should give John G. an ultimatum. If he can't get us a site 2 weeks before the project, we need to start looking for other people to coordinate with.
Be in charge with your time when dealing with John G. Doing the first (and only) site visit was a pretty big waste of time besides getting to meet him in person. I drove to Windsor to meet him in a parking lot. He calls a few minutes late and says that he needs to eat lunch. We sit down at Qdoba so he can eat. We next try to visit the site and it now has an oil/gas operation on it. We can't access the land so he drives us around to look for alternate sites, calling numbers on Windsor Parks signs. Next, we swing by one of his previous work sites so he can see how his transplants are doing. In all, it was a mostly wasted work day.
Special Notes: A couple volunteers had to leave early because one of them was coming off an injury. They said they would help again when she healed up.
Stewardship Education: Michael Clausen from Aloterra Services was very knowledgeable about flood restoration and gave a great introduction/orientation for volunteers on the importance of the work.
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers: A few volunteers couldn't find the site. It was tricky as we were meeting in a gravel parking lot in a newly developed area that has many curving/winding roads. The great cell phone service helped to mitigate the problems from this.
Description of Accidents/Incidents: N/A
Description of Work Completed: 275 Coyote willow - Salix
180 Plains Cottonwood - Populus deltoides
140 peachleaf willow - Salix amygdaloides
Details
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